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With the development of passive optical networking (PON) technology, two PON standards are striking in FTTH solution area and they are Ethernet passive optical networking (EPON) and ATM (asynchronous transfer mode)-based Gigabit passive optical networking (GPON). During these years, it has become a hot topic that which will be more popular in broadband access and optical telecom applications, EPON or GPON? This article will compare these two technologies from the differences of architecture, bandwidth, efficiency, cost, etc.

Architecture

The biggest difference between the two technologies shows in architecture. EPON employs a single Layers 2 network that uses IP to carry data, voice, and video. While GPON provides three Layer 2 networks: ATM for voice, Ethernet for data, and proprietary encapsulation for voice.

EPON provides seamless connectivity for any type of IP-based or other “packetised” “communications”. Since Ethernet devices are so popular and easy to get, implementation of EPONs can be highly cost-effective.

In GPON, virtual circuits are provisioned for different kinds of services sent from a central office primarily to business end users. This kind of transport provides high-quality service, but includes significant overhead because virtual circuits should be provisioned for each type of service. GPON equipment requires multiple protocol conversions, segmentation and reassembly (SAR), virtual channel (VC) termination and point-to-point protocol (PPP).

Bandwidth

EPON delivers symmetrical bandwidth of 1 Gbit/s. EPON’s Gigabit Ethernet service actually constitutes 1 Gbit/s of bandwidth for data and 250 Mbit/s of bandwidth for encoding. GPON promises 1.25-Gbit/s or 2.5-Gbit/s downstream, and upstream bandwidths scalable from 155 Mbit/s to 2.5 Gbit/s. GPON’s 1.25-Gbit service specifies a usable bandwidth of 1.25 Gbit/s, with no requirement for encoding. Gigabit Ethernet interfaces to the aggregation switch, central office, and metro are currently cost-effective to aggregate 1-Gbit ports for transport. But for 1.25 Gbit, there is no way.

Efficiency

Efficiency has to be considered in both directions of a PON. Each PON protocol introduces its own overhead in either direction. In the downstream direction, protocol overhead could be negligible. In the upstream direction, the total scheduling overhead within EPON is from 90.33 percent to 97.08 percent compared to a GbE point-to-point link. In the downstream direction, EPON efficiency reaches from 97.13 percent to 98.92 percent of the efficiency of a point-to-point 1GbE link, while GPON in GTC Encapsulation Method (GEM) mode can achieve ~ 95 percent efficiency of its usable bandwidth. The downstream EPON data rate can be doubled to 2.5Gbps comparable to GPON.

Cost

EPON simplifies the networks and needs no complex and expensive ATM and Sonet elements. Thus it helps lower the costs to subscribers. Now the cost of EPON equipment is about 10 percent of the costs of GPON equipment.

Encryption

Encryption is part of the ITU standard. EPON uses an AES-based mechanism, which is supported by multiple silicon vendors and deployed in the field. And EPON encryption is both downstream and upstream. However, GPON encryption is downstream only.

Ethernet Features

EPON is an IEEE Ethernet standard and uses Ethernet switches within its silicon, it can natively support all of the 802.1 and 802.3 Ethernet, including VLAN tags, prioritisation, OAM, etc. All Ethernet services can be natively delivered in a manner identical to what is done with switched Ethernet today. As to GPON, it only defines the transport of Ethernet frames. So it has no native Ethernet functionality. Ethernet switches must be placed either in front of or within GPON OLTs and ONTs to provide any additional Ethernet capabilities.

EPON and GPON technologies have been introduced into the market because of service quality and price point. By comparing the differences of the two technologies, it shows EPON is a superior technology for delivering residential and small-to-medium enterprise Ethernet services in terms of its advantages in bandwidth, efficiency, cost, encryption and Ethernet features. So EPON will be employed in FTTH solution area in a large scale earlier and faster than GPON.

Originally published at http://www.streetarticles.com/internet-and-businesses-online/epon-vs-gponwhich-will-be-more-popular

As fibre deployment has become mainstream, splicing has naturally crossed from the outside plant (OSP) world into the enterprise and even the data centre environment. Fusion splicing involves the use of localized heat to melt together or fuse the ends of two optical fibres. The preparation process involves removing the protective coating from each fibre, precise cleaving, and inspection of the fibre end-faces. Fusion splicing has been around for several decades, and it’s a trusted method for permanently fusing together the ends of two optical fibres to realize a specific length or to repair a broken fibre link. However, due to the high costs of fusion splicers, it has not been actively used by many people. But these years some improvements in optical technology have been changing this status. Besides, the continued demand for increased bandwidth also spread the application of fusion splicing.

New Price of Fusion Splicers
Fusion splicers costs have been one of the biggest obstacles to a broad adoption of fusion splicing. In recent years, significant decreases in splicer prices has accelerated the popularity of fusion splicing. Today’s fusion splicers range in cost from $7,000 to $40,000. The highest-priced units are designed for specialty optical fibres, such as polarization-maintaining fibres used in the production of high-end non-electrical sensors. The lower-end fusion splicers, in the $7,000 to $10,000 range, are primarily single-fibre fixed V-groove type devices. The popular core alignment splicers range between $17,000 and $19,000, well below the $30,000 price of 20 years ago. The prices have dropped dramatically due to more efficient manufacturing, and volume is up because fibre is no longer a voodoo science and more people are working in that arena. Recently, more and more fibre being deployed closer to the customer premise with higher splice-loss budgets, which results in a greater participation of customers who are purchasing lower-end splicers to accomplish their jobs.

More Cost-effective Cable Solutions
The first and primary use of splicing in the telecommunications industry is to link fibres together in underground or aerial outside-plant fibre installations. It used to be very common to do fusion splicing at the building entrance to transition from outdoor-rated to indoor-rated cable, because the NEC (National Electrical Code) specifies that outdoor-rated cable can only come 50 feet into a building due to its flame rating. The advent of plenum-rated indoor/outdoor cable has driven that transition splicing to a minimum. But that’s not to say that fusion splicing in the premise isn’t going on.

Longer distances in the outside plant could mean that sticking with standard outdoor-rated cable and fusion splicing at the building entrance could be the more economical choice. If it’s a short run between building A and B, it makes sense to use newer indoor/outdoor cable and come right into the crossconnect. However, because indoor/outdoor cables are generally more expensive, if it’s a longer run with lower fibre counts between buildings, it could ultimately be cheaper to buy outdoor-rated cable and fusion splice to transition to indoor-rated cable, even with the additional cost of splice materials and housing.

As fibre to the home (FTTH) applications continue to grow around the globe, it is another situation that may call for fusion splicing. If you want to achieve longer distance in a FTTH application, you have to either fusion splice or do an interconnect. However, an interconnect can introduce 0.75dB of loss while the fusion splice is typically less than 0.02dB. Therefore, the easiest way to minimize the amount of loss on a FTTH circuit is to bring the individual fibres from each workstation back to the closet and then splice to a higher-fibre-count cable. This approach also enables centralizing electronics for more efficient port utilisation. In FTTH applications, fusion splicing is now being used to install connectors for customer drop cables using new splice-on connector technology and drop cable fusion splicer.

A Popular Option for Data Centres
A significant increase in the number of applications supported by data centres has resulted in more cables and connections than ever, making available space a foremost concern. As a result, higher-density solutions like MTP/MPO connectors and multi-fibre cables that take up less pathway space than running individual duplex cables become more popular.

Since few manufacturers offer field-installable MTP/MPO connectors, many data centre managers are selecting either multi-fibre trunk cables with MTP/MPOs factory-terminated on each end, or fusion splicing to pre-terminated MTP/MPO or multi-fibre LC pigtails. When you select trunk cables with connectors on each end, data centre managers often specify lengths a little bit longer because they can’t always predict exact distances between equipment and they don’t want to be short. However, they then have to deal with excess slack. When there are thousands of connections, that slack can create a lot of congestion and limit proper air flow and cooling. One alternative is to purchase a multi-fibre pigtail and then splice to a multi-fibre cable.

Inside the data centre and in the enterprise LAN, 12-fibre MPO connectors provide a convenient method to support higher 40G and 100G bandwidth. Instead of fusing one fibre at a time, another type of fusion splicing which is called ribbon/mass fusion splicing is used. Ribbon/mass fusion splicing can fuse up to all 12 fibres in one ribbon at once, which offers the opportunity to significantly reduce termination labor by up to 75% with only a modest increase in tooling cost. Many of today’s cables with high fibre count involve subunits of 12 fibres each that can be quickly ribbonized. Splicing those fibres individually is very time consuming, however, ribbon/mass fusion splicers splice entire ribbons simultaneously. Ribbon/mass fusion splicer technology has been around for decades and now is available in handheld models.

Conclusion
Fusion splicing provides permanent low-loss connections that are performed quickly and easily, which are definite advantages over competing technologies. In addition, current fusion splicers are designed to provide enhanced features and high-quality performance, and be very affordable at the same time. FS provides various types and uses of fusion splicers with high quality and low price. For more information, please feel free to contact us at sales@fs.com.

To meet the large demand for high capacity transmission in optical access systems, 10G-PON (10G Passive Optical Network) has already been standardized by IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and ITU (International Telecommunication Union). To enable the development of future optical access systems, the most recent version of PON known as NG-PON2 (Next-Generation Passive Optical Network 2) was approved recently, which provides a total throughput of 40 Gbps downstream and 10 Gbps upstream over a single fibre distributed to connected premises. The migration from GPON to 10G-PON and NG-PON2 is the maturity of technology and the need for higher bandwidth. This article will introduce the NG-PON2 technology to you.

What Is NG-PON2?
NG-PON2 is a 2015 telecommunications network standard for PON which was developed by ITU. NG-PON2 offers a fibre capacity of 40 Gbps by exploiting multiple wavelengths at dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) channel spacing and tunable transceiver technology in the subscriber terminals (ONUs). Wavelength allocations include 1524 nm to 1544 nm in the upstream direction and 1596 nm to 1602 nm in the downstream direction. NG-PON2 was designed to coexist with previous architectures to ease deployment into existing optical distribution networks. Wavelengths were specifically chosen to avoid interference with GPON, 10G-PON, RF Video, and OTDR measurements, and thus NG-PON2 provides spectral flexibility to occupy reserved wavelengths in deployments devoid of legacy architectures.

How Does NG-PON2 Work?
If 24 premises are connected to a PON and the available throughput is equally shared then for GPON each connection receives 100 Mbps downstream and 40 Mbps upstream over a maximum of 20 km of fibre. For 10G-PON, which was the second PON revision, each of the 24 connections would receive about 400 Mbps downstream and 100 Mbps upstream. The recently approved NG-PON2 will provide a total throughput of 40 Gbps downstream and 10 Gbps upstream over a maximum of 40 km of fibre so each of the 24 connections would receive about 1.6 Gbps downstream and 410 Mbps upstream. NG-PON2 provides a greater range of connection speed options including 10/2.5 Gbps, 10/10 Gbps and 2.5/2.5 Gbps. NG-PON2 also includes backwards compatibility with GPON and 10G-PON to ensure that customers can upgrade when they’re ready.

NG-PON2 Advantages
The NG-PON2 technology is expected to be about 60 to 80 percent cheaper to operate than a copper based access network and provides a clear undeniable performance, capacity and price advantage over any of the copper based access networks such as Fibre to the Node (FTTN) or Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC). At present, three clear benefits of NG-PON2 have been proved. They are a 30 to 40 percent reduction in equipment and operating costs, improved connection speeds and symmetrical upstream and downstream capacity.

Reduced Costs
NG-PON2 can coexist with existing GPON and 10G-PON systems and is able to use existing PON-capable outside plant. Since the cost of PON FTTH (Fibre to the Home) roll out is 70 percent accounted for by the optical distribution network (ODN), this is significant. Operators have a clear upgrade path from where they are now, until well into the future.

Improved Connection Speeds
Initially NG-PON2 will provide a minimum of 40 Gbps downstream capacity, produced by four 10 Gbps signals on different wavelengths in the O-band multiplexed together in the central office with a 10 Gbps total upstream capacity. This capability can be doubled to provide 80 Gbps downstream and 20 Gbps upstream in the “extended” NG-PON2.

Symmetrical Upstream and Downstream Capacity
Both the basic and extended implementations are designed to appeal to domestic consumers where gigabit downstream speeds may be needed but more modest upstream needs prevail. For business users with data mirroring and similar requirements, a symmetric implementation will be provided giving 40/40 and 80/80 Gbps capacity respectively.

With the introduction of NG-PON2, there is now an obvious difference between optical access network and copper access network capabilities. Investment in NG-PON2 provides a far cheaper network to operate, significantly faster downstream and upstream speeds and a future-proof upgrade path all of which copper access networks do not provide, thus making them obsolete technologies. Telephone companies around the world have been carrying out trials of NG-PON2 and key telecommunication vendors have rushed NG-PON2 products to market.

FTTH, short for fibre to the home, is the installation and use of optical fibre from a central point directly to individual buildings such as residences, apartment buildings and businesses to provide unprecedented high-speed Internet access. In determining the best solution for a particular FTTH deployment, providers must first decide between splices and connectors. Then, they must choose the best splice or connector for the particular circumstances of deployment. This article explores the available interconnect solutions for FTTH drop cables and discusses their advantages and disadvantages in various deployment circumstances.

Splice vs Connector

Before deploying a FTTH network, providers must first decide whether to use a splice, which is a permanent joint, or a connector, which can be easily mated and un-mated by hand. Both splices and connectors are widely used at the distribution point. At the home’s optical network terminal (ONT) or network interface device (NID), either a field-terminated connector or a spliced-on factory-terminated connector can be used.

Splices enable a transition from 250micron drop cable fibre to jacketed cable with high reliability and eliminates the possibility of the interconnection point becoming damaged or dirty. Splices are most appropriate for drop cables dedicated to a particular living unit where no future fibre rearrangement is necessary, such as in a greenfield or new construction application where the service provider can easily install all of the drop cables during the living unit construction.

Connectors are easier to operate and provide greater network flexibility than splices, because they can be mated and unmated repeatedly, allowing them to be reused over and over again. Connectors also provide an access point for network testing. However, connectors cost more than splices although network rearrangement is much cheaper. Therefore, providers must weigh the material cost of connectors along with the potential for contamination and damage against their greater flexibility and lower network management expense.

Choosing the Right Splice

Splicing technology for FTTH deployment falls into two major categories: fusion and mechanical.

Fusion splicing is considered to be a solution for FTTH drop splicing, especially considering it provides a high quality splice with low insertion loss and reflection. However, fusion splicing is expensive and requires trained technicians to operate. It is time-consuming and the slow installation speed hinders its status as the preferred solution. Fusion splicing is best suited for companies that have already invested in fusion splicing equipment and do not need to purchase additional splicing machines.

Mechanical splices can perform well in many environments and have been successfully deployed around the world in FTTH installations. A typical mechanical fibre optic splice includes a small plastic housing with an aluminum alloy element to precisely align and clamp fibres. An index matching gel inside the splices maintains a low-loss optical interface, which results in an average insertion loss of less than 0.1 dB.

Choosing the Right Connector

According to the drop cables used, connectors can be divided into two types: factory-terminated and field-terminated.

Factory-terminated
Factory-terminated drop cables can provide high-performing, reliable connections with low optical loss. Factory termination also keeps labor costs low by reducing installation time. An excellent application is a patch cord that connects a desktop ONT to a wall outlet box inside the living unit. A key failure point in the network is when the end user accidentally breaks the fibre in the cable that connects the desktop ONT. If this occurs, the patch cord can be easily replaced. However, factory-terminated cables can be expensive compared to field-terminated alternatives.

Field-terminated
Many providers prefer field-terminated connectors where the installation can be customised by using a reel of cable and connectors, such as fuse-on connectors and mechanical connectors. For example, fuse-on connectors use the same technology as fusion splicing to provide the highest level of optical performance in a field-terminated connector. By incorporating the fusion splice inside the connector, the need for a separate splice tray has been eliminated. However, fuse-on connectors share many of the same drawbacks as fusion splicing. They require expensive equipment, highly trained technicians, and packing and unpacking time, and a power source, ratcheting up installation costs. However, mechanical connectors can provide alternatives to fuse-on connectors for field installation of drop cables.

Summary

The drop cable interconnect solution comprises a key component of an FTTH network. Reliable broadband service depends upon robust connections at the distribution point and the NID/ONT. Choosing the right connectivity product can result in cost savings and efficient deployment while providing reliable service to customers. Globally, most FTTH drop cable installations have been and continue to be field-terminated on both ends of the cable with mechanical connectivity solutions.

From global telecommunications network investment development in the last five years, China has become a leading global network equipment, which is one of the main kinetic energy market growth. As the optical FTTH(fiber to the home) FTTH patch cables policy, RMB 600 billion forecast will bring business opportunities, in addition to the infrastructure construction, the Chinese are optimistic forecasts for the whole broadband policy related investment on the upstream and downstream industry more than 1.6 million yuan. In addition to broadband policy, China to accelerate the development of 4 g, driven optical fiber and CNC equipment performance grow.

Housing and urban-rural development, according to media reports, China’s ministry of industry and information technology, has issued “residential area and residential buildings fiber-to-the-home fiber optic transmission facilities engineering design specification”, “residential area and residential buildings fiber-to-the-home fiber optic transmission facilities engineering construction and acceptance norms”, the two national standards, to the situation of the implementation of the optical fiber to the home for the first time to make mandatory provisions.

According to the rules, from April 1, in public telecommunication network is optical fiber transmission. New residential and residential construction of communications facilities, should use optical fiber to the home way construction, at the same time, encourage and support the conditional towns, rural housing project.

According to internet service providers, if you want to complete “250 million broadband users, access speed urban family an average of more than 20 m rural averaged more than 4 m in 2015,”, individual operators, the total cost of the national broadband network construction, will need about 200 billion yuan to 280 billion yuan, the three operators will exceed 600 billion yuan total construction cost.

China ministry of industry and in the “broadband China 2013” conference earlier this year has also suggested to add FTTH (fiber to the home) covering number exceeds 35 million goals. Ministry of industry and at the same time, according to the last year China FTTH coverage expanded to 94 million households.

MITT(Ministry of Industry and Information) published news that the ministry, the national development and reform commission eight departments jointly issued “on the implementation of broadband’s opinions on China’s 2013 special action, points out that more than 4M broadband users in China will exceed 70% in 2013. Analysts believe that the Internet companies are expected to benefit from broadband equipment suppliers.

“Opinions” pointed out that in 2013, the new FTTHfiber to the home fiber optic patch cables family covered more than 35 million units, 3G base station across 180000, 1.3million new WLAN access point. Universal scale expands unceasingly to benefit the people. The new fixed broadband Internet users more than 25 million units, the new 3G users, new broadband administrative villages, 18000, 5000 poor rural areas by accelerated the broadband access or modification of primary and secondary schools, a user use above 4M access more than 70%.

Cic’s consultant in the IT industry researcher Wang Ningyuan analysis that the ministry had issued a number of policies to promote the development of the broadband industry, the above opinion is a complement to the policy, put forward specific requirements for broadband industry development. Mainly in rural areas, urban old residential area of cables management broadband and wireless broadband, and guide enterprises to actively expand remote rural market, and to improve broadband fiber optic network industry.

Mr. Zhang thinks that from the perspective of the investment returns, China Unicom is a mature network system suppliers; ZTE in base station construction will have certain positive, investors can focus on for a long time. Additionally notable sector stocks, optical equipment suppliers such as zhongtian technology; Mobile device accessories manufacturers such as Wu Tong communications, Da Fu technology,etc.

But Wang Ningyuan also reminded investors, broadband stocks p/e ratio is generally on the high side, the ministry has introduced various policies, such opinion to the positive role of the market is limited, not enough to support the current high earnings expectations.

On April 1, the formal implementation of fibre optic network Fibre To The Home(FTTH) of the policy was put into effect, is the process of city informatization construction and renovation, but in the process of execution, some parts of the acceptance standard has yet to be improved.

MOHURD(Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development) and MIIT(Ministry of Industry and Information) held a teleconference jointly that asked to implement the previous issued FTTH fibre optic cablesdocuments, they are Residential area and residential buildings fibre-to-the-home communication facilities engineering design specifications.

It is worth mentioning that the specification is not only for new residential area, building, and it’s suitable for both residential, building renovation and expansion project of fibre optic transmission, that the fibre to the home faces the first national standards. At the same time, the policy of the specific implementation, relevant statement to make clear, the user can choose the carrier freely.

In addition, in the process of optical fibre to the home project acceptance, the acceptance by the force of the strength and acceptance standards is also related to the implement of this policy, whether they are in good condition.

In fact, on July 15, 2010, our country had issued national standard of housing and urban-rural development of the residential area and residential buildings communication facilities specification “, “residential and residential building acceptance of communications engineering. Compared with the previous situation, the new “standard” in addition to the new requirement for optical fibre to the home, in the “mandatory norms” is made obviously improve.